This invention relates generally to the art of textiles and more particularly to a plant structure for the spinning of textile fibers into yarn products.
Various plant structures have existed for the production of textile yarns for ultimately weaving or knitting into desired fabric.
Traditionally, two techniques of spinning have been utilized, i.e. ring spinning and open-end spinning. An example of open-end spinning is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,895 to Raasch, et al. assigned to W. Schlafhorst & Co. of Germany. As described in this particular patent, cans of coiled sliver typically are positioned on the floor adjacent to an open-end spinning apparatus and vertically bent upwardly into the open-end spinning apparatus.
An example of an open-end spinning apparatus is the Autocoro 240 automatic rotor spinning and winding machine produced and sold by W. Schlafhorst & Co.
In a conventional plant arrangement, a roving frame carrying a plurality of sliver spools is positioned proximate associated ring spinning machines. While plants have effectively operated utilizing this arrangement, the formation of spools and the manual changing of spent spools on the roving frame have been known to consume significant amounts of time. Moreover, roving frames require considerable floor space. Thus, room exists for improvement in the overall plant operations utilizing ring spinning devices.